Alright brethren, let's go back
here now to this psalm. Psalm 106. Every child of God
can identify with this psalm. The psalmist identifies himself
and the children of Israel in his day with their fathers of
old. And so God's children identify
with the things spoken of here. The psalmist here takes his place
as a sinner like his fathers, and he asks God to visit him
and his brethren with mercy and with salvation, and so do we
today. We do the same thing. We take
our place with our fathers, with the sinners of old, just like
the psalmist did here, and we're asking God for mercy and asking
him to rule in our midst Now the psalm begins and ends with
the same word. It begins with praise ye the
Lord. It's very important because this
is who's being praised throughout this psalm. Praise ye the Lord,
oh give thanks unto the Lord. And this psalm shows us why we
praise him and why we thank him. What makes God's child praise
the Lord? What makes you give thanks to
the Lord? When do we really do so? Verse
one, he says, because he is good, because his mercy endureth forever. When you experience his goodness
and show him your mercy, you know what mercy is, withholding
what you deserve. It's grace giving you all the
blessings we don't deserve. And when we experience that,
and we experience it over and over and over. That's when you
cry out with the psalmist and say, praise ye the Lord, oh give
thanks unto the Lord, for he's good, for his mercy endureth
forever. Look down at verse 43. Note this word, nevertheless.
Many times did he deliver them, but they provoked him with their
counsel and were brought low for their iniquity. Nevertheless,
he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry, and
he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the
multitude of his mercies, and he made them also to be pitied
of all those that carried them captives. Now, after opening
this psalm with this praise of God's goodness in showing mercy
to his people, the psalmist begins with a statement of fact. Look
at verse three. Blessed are they that keep judgment
and he that doeth righteousness at all times. Our triune God are they that keep judgment and
doeth righteousness at all times. Our triune God keeps judgment
and does righteousness at all times. When you read this Psalm,
who did judgment and who kept righteousness for Israel the
whole way through? God did. We just read it. We just read it. In fact, it
says, Are they that keep judgment and he that doeth righteousness
at all times? And look where the psalm ends.
The psalm ends at verse 48. It says, Blessed be the Lord
God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. And let all the
people say Amen. Praise ye the Lord. This whole
psalm is about the Lord keeping judgment and doing what was right
for Israel beginning to end. That's what the whole psalm's
about. This word keep, blessed are they that keep judgment.
That word means observe. Blessed are they that observe
judgment. Blessed are they that observe
God's judgment. When you observe God's judgment
on the cross, in His word, and in your life, That's how God
makes us behold Him keeping judgment and doing righteousness. And
when He does that, that's when He teaches us to keep judgment
and do what's right. This is how He keeps us doing
judgment and doing what's right. What is it to do judgment and
do what's right? Trust Christ and obey Him and
love one another by trusting Christ and obeying Him. Blessed
of God and happy are they that keep judgment. Blessed of God,
now talking about His people, blessed are they and happy that
keep judgment and do righteousness, saved by grace, given spiritual
discernment by the Spirit of God so that you keep judgment.
We have the mind of Christ. We can judge now. We're the sinner. We're the sinner. And we judge
this. Christ is our wisdom. We have
the mind of Christ. That's how you have judgment. That's how you keep judgment.
You have the mind of Christ. He's our strength. Can you judge
that? Can you discern that He's your
strength? He's our righteousness. We don't have any apart from
Him. He's our righteousness. He's our sanctification. He's
our redemption. He's given us discernment, and
we keep the judgment of God, the Word of our Lord, by believing
on Him. Casting our care on Christ, humbling
ourselves under His mighty hand, waiting on Christ. That's judgment. That's not the judgment of this
world and the judgment of this world's religion, but that's
the judgment God teaches His people. And happy is he that
doeth righteousness, He that believes on Christ for righteousness. Trust Christ for righteousness.
He that does what's right according to the word of our Lord, in love
to Christ and in love to our brethren. Not to be justified,
but because Christ has justified us. You may not be understood in
what you're doing, but you trust Christ. And you believe Christ
that He's gonna keep judgment and do what's right in the midst
of His people and for His people. And blessed of God and happy
is this man. And you remember whenever Christ
was teaching us in John 15 to keep His commandments, to believe
Him and love one another and abide in Him and remember without
Him we can do nothing. He said, these things have I
spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you. That's what blessed
means, happy. This is what makes you happy,
is believe in Christ and obey in Him. That your joy might be
full. Now, by God showing us His goodness,
His never-ending mercy in the face of our utter unworthiness,
in the face of our sins, By Him showing us He's never into mercy,
we're brought to praise Him and thank Him because He's keeping
judgment for His people. And He's doing what's right for
His people. And He's keeping you having this
judgment and doing what's right. That's what He's doing. He is growing us and teaching
us what it is to keep judgment, what it is to do righteousness.
He's growing us in faith, He's growing us in love, and it's
by His continual grace and mercy to us for Christ's sake, because
that's what's just. When you sin, do you want God
to keep judgment for you? What's just for God to do to
you when you sin? Now let's just say you have one
sin of thought. Just one sin of thought. You
don't have any other sin. You just got one sin that's not
quite as righteous as God, just in your thoughts. Is that wicked?
Is it? Is it unrighteous? You want God
to keep judgment for you? You want Him to do what's right
for you? I'll tell you what's right. I'll tell you what's just.
Because Christ put away all the sin of His people. It's just
and it's right for God to be merciful to you and keep you
looking to Him. That's what we see God doing
in this psalm. And that's what He's going to do for His people.
And by that, by doing it to you personally, to you personally,
showing you what a sinner you are personally, and showing you
what judgment He's keeping for you personally and doing what's
right for you personally, showing you mercy personally because
of Christ and what He's done for you. He's teaching you that's
judgment and that's right for you to do for your brethren.
That's what He's teaching you. That's when we become overwhelmed
with God's goodness toward us. After speaking of God's enduring
mercy, this is what he says, verse 2. Who can utter the mighty
acts of the Lord? Who can show forth all His praise? Everything in this Psalm is showing
us how God keeps judgment and does what's right for His people.
Everything in this Psalm. You didn't think of yourself
when you read that verse 3, did you? Blessed is he that keepeth
judgment, doeth the right thing. You didn't think, oh, that's
me, I do that. That's Christ who does that,
and he keeps you doing it, but it's not any way that the carnal
mind think, it's trusting Christ. And you love one another by continually
pointing one another to Christ, and that's mercy, that's what's
just to do, because this is what Christ is gonna keep his people,
how he's gonna keep his people. Now, let's see it. First of all,
keeping judgment and doing righteousness is, first of all, to cast all
our care on God our Savior. As soon as the psalmist speaks
of this, of keeping judgment and doing righteousness, as soon
as he speaks of it, verse 4, he says, Remember me, O Lord,
with the favor that Thou bearest unto Thy people, O visit me with
Thy salvation. This is personal. It's personal. It's not going to do you any
good to be applying this to anybody else. And praise God if he applies
it to you and makes you hear it for you. Because that's the
only way it's going to be edifying to you. That's the only way it's
edifying to any of his people. This is personal. This is true
judgment. This is righteousness that God
puts in the heart by spirit. The psalmist is in need. He's
in need. You in need? I'm in need. God's people are in need. God's
given Him judgment to discern. He personally has a dire need. The psalmist does. God's given
Him discernment to know His need of Christ, His righteousness.
We're not told who wrote this, probably so that we don't have
one man in mind so that you can put your place in the place of
the one who wrote this. Like the thief on the cross,
he asked, remember me, oh Lord. We're going to see one of the
problems with the fathers in Israel is the problem we have. Same problem we have. We see
ourselves right here in all these sins. If we don't, we're in trouble. If we don't, we're in trouble.
If we only see the sins of others in these sins, we're in great
trouble. Here's the problem we have. They
soon forgot. They forgot God, they forgot
His mercy, they forgot His wonders. That's the problem we have. Why
do we ask the Lord, remember me, Lord. Remember me. Keep me
remembering You. Remember me and keep me not forgetting
all Your wonderful works to me. Remember me, O Lord, with Thy
favor. Remember me, O Lord, with Thy
free, unmerited, sovereign, unchangeable grace that Thou bearest unto
Thy people. That's the only thing God bears
toward His people His favor, His favor, grace, given to us
what we have not and cannot merit at all. Oh, visit me with Thy salvation. Who is God's salvation? It's
Christ. Visit me with Christ. Visit me
and save me, O Lord. Now, the only way any Savior,
any sinner shall be saved, the only way any sinner shall be
saved, beginning and end. is God visiting us with His favor
personally. Him visiting us with His favor,
with Christ His salvation coming to us personally. And a believer
never stops asking Christ to visit me with Thy grace and with
Thy salvation. You never stop. That's your plea
from beginning to end. But hasn't He already saved you?
Hadn't he already saved the psalmist? The psalmist wouldn't be right
in this if he didn't already know the Lord. Hadn't he already
saved Him? But I need His salvation today. I need His salvation today. I need His grace today. We had the sentence of death
in ourselves, Paul said, that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God who raiseth the dead. who delivered us from so great
a death, and doth deliver, and we trust he will yet deliver
us. Why does the psalmist desire
God to remember him and visit him with grace and save him?
Why does he say this? Verse 5, that I may see the good
of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation,
that I may glory with thine inheritance. You know, carnal men desire to
be united with the rich and the powerful and the renown of this
world. That's impressive to carnal men.
They like to be around rich folk. And they like to, they're impressed
with all the things, you know, that kind of thing. They want
to be united with them. God makes his child desire to
be vitally and inseparably united with Christ and his people. The
only way we're gonna do so is by God remembering us with his
grace, with his favor, and visiting us with his salvation. That's
it, that's what we need. That's what I need, that's what
you need, that's what we as a church need, for God to visit us with
his favor, with his salvation. Who's the good of God's chosen?
He said that I may see the good of thy chosen. Who's the good
of God's chosen? Who's the rejoicing and gladness
of His spiritual people? The glory of His people, His
inheritance. Who is this? It's Christ. It's Christ. I want to see Christ.
I want to see this is the good. This is my good and your good
and this will be the good of us to see Christ and this will
be our rejoicing and we'll glory in Him. for glory in Him. And it'll be by Christ exercising
judgment and doing what's right to keep us stayed on Him alone. That's what'll be the result
of. That'll be the end of it. That'll be the end purpose, what
He brings to pass. So that's the first thing about
doing judgment, keeping judgment, doing righteousness. He's first
to cry out personally to God, Lord, visit me. I need Your grace. I need You. And secondly, keeping
judgment and doing righteousness is to confess to God our sin. This is why we cry for God to
remember us and visit us with His grace and His salvation.
He says in verse 6, we have sinned with our fathers. We have committed
iniquity. We have done wickedly. Now the
things He's going to show here that the fathers did, He says,
we have done. in his generation. He's looking
way back there to when they were in Egypt and in the wilderness.
And he says, we have done these sins. We have committed this
iniquity. We have done wickedly. He doesn't
say they have. He's going to use the pronoun
they to describe what they did. But in all of it, he's saying,
this is what we have done. Can you say that? It's what we've
done. We have sinned with our fathers.
We have committed niquel. We have done wickedly. What's
he saying? What Paul said, what, are we
better than they? No, and no wise. We have all
sinned and come short of the glory of God. I had a wise preacher
tell me one time when some trouble was starting. He told me, he
said, best thing you could do is preach everybody. as low in
the dust as you possibly can. And preach Christ as high as
you possibly can. Best thing. Because if you don't
preach everybody equally wormy and sinful, somebody's going
to exalt themselves. And preach Christ is all. That's
what he's going to bless, to work in his people. This is God,
this is keeping judgment and doing righteousness which God
produces in the heart to say, we've sinned, we've committed
iniquity, we've done wickedly. When God chastened Israel and
He delivered them to heathen nations, He was chastening, the
whole nation suffered. The whole nation of Israel suffered.
Even those that were not God's true Israelites suffered in it.
And when God showed them mercy and delivered them out of the
hand of the heathen and brought them back, they all got to come
back. But God only sanctified it to
the heart of His true Israel. He sanctified the chastening
to their heart, so that like the psalmist, they said, Lord,
we have sinned. Visit me. Visit me. And when he did, they said what
the psalmist said, praise the Lord for His goodness, for His
mercy endures forever. How'd they know that? Because
they couldn't destroy it. They couldn't make His mercy
stop. They couldn't make it stop. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad?
That's keeping judgment. That's doing righteousness. Confessing
our sin. We need Him. We need Him. And
then thirdly, keeping judgment and doing righteousness is God
in His covenant mercy to His people, exercising judgment and
doing righteousness for us to keep us trusting Him. Everything
else He's going to say here, the people are sinning, and He's
saying that's what we're doing now. And everything that takes
place here, God's doing everything to save His people and be merciful
to His people. God's working judgment and keeping
righteousness. And He's teaching His people
judgment and righteousness. Verse 7, Our fathers understood
not Thy wonders in Egypt. They remembered not the multitude
of Thy mercies, but provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red
Sea. The psalmist is not speaking
of what the fathers did before the Lord delivered them out of
Egypt. He's talking about what they did after the Lord delivered
them out of Egypt. And He's been a long time delivered
out of Egypt, and so is Israel. And He's saying, we've done the
same thing, Lord. Even after all Your grace and
all Your mercy to us, how little we understand the wonders of
God's grace and what He worked in Christ on the cross. How that
He so thoroughly justified His people from our sins. Put them
away. They don't exist. And He did
it thoroughly, totally, completely honoring His justice. His justice
is upheld. His justice is honored. So that when He showed mercy
to us, it was the just thing. It was the right thing. How little we really believe
how sovereign God is over all things in this earth. How many
hairs fell out of your head today? Not a one of them without God.
Next time you see one fall out, just know that only fell out
by God's permission. Next time an eyelash falls out
of your eye, God did that. That's how sovereign God is.
Nothing. That breath you just took, the
only reason you took it by God, that's sovereign. He can devise
all the device he wants in his heart. It's God's purpose and
grace that's going to last, that's going to stand, his counsel.
How little we grasp the wonder that he worked for his people
when he brought us the gospel and taught us and quickened us
and made us believe him. And that has kept us and kept
us and kept us and kept us and kept us until this moment right
now. But how soon When we experience
it, and you've done this, you've experienced His grace and His
mercy. You remember when you first believed Him and you thought,
I'll never sin again. I'm not gonna sin again. This
is too good. Who can declare His works and
His wonders and what He's done? They came out of Israel with
a high hand. I mean, out of Egypt with a high hand. And just that
quick, God brought them and hemmed them in. The hand was too high. It was just too high. They got
to bring that hand down. And he hemmed them in. And they
went to murmuring and complaining, God just brought us out here
to kill us. You did it, Moses. You did it. You brought us out
here to kill us. It says here, why did he save
them? It says, for his name's sake.
He did it for his name's sake. That he might make his mighty
power known. That's why he did it. That's
the only reason he's saving us, brethren, for his name's sake,
for Christ's sake, to make his power known. Make Christ known,
he's his power. Everything he did in delivering
them pictures Christ. And here's the thing, now get
this, it all pictures this gospel we preach and how that God's
working everything, not by might nor by power, but by his spirit.
We're not supposed to do like Phinehas did back under the old
covenant and take a javelin and spare somebody with it. That's
picturing Christ. who, through this gospel, pierces
to the heart and works the same thing in his people. He slays
our old man and renews our new man. This is our one weapon,
is this gospel. Look, verse nine, he rebuked
the Red Sea also. Why does it say also? Well, I
know this, he first rebuked them. Remember that? Moses went to
call unto him too, and he told Moses, you be still, Moses. And
he said, now you tell the people, be still. He told him, you know what he
said when he said be still? Shut up! That's what he told him.
Quit murmuring! And stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. And then He rebuked the Red Sea
also, and it was dried up, and He led them through the depths
as through the wilderness, and He saved them from the hand of
Him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy,
and the waters covered their enemies, and there's not one
of them left. Why isn't God drying up seas for us today? Why is
He not bringing us to be hedged in around a mountain in a sea
in front of us and just drying up the sea in front of us like
this to show us the gospel? Because you have the gospel.
You have what that picture. We have Christ gone to the cross,
crucified. Scripture tells us that was a
picture of baptism. And it's talking about the baptism
where we were baptized in Christ. When Christ died, he died and
our old man of sin was destroyed. We were buried in him, just like
they went into those waters and we came out with him and are
seated at God's right hand with him. And that's what we're typifying
in water baptism. And that's what all that picture.
Everything he did and delivered them shows us the gospel of Christ
and crucified because this is how he saves his people. It's
what Christ did for us and it's through the preaching of what
Christ did for us that he subdues our man that doesn't have any
judgment and doesn't do any righteousness and he quickens us inwardly and
renews us inwardly so that we do judgment and keep righteousness,
keep judgment and do righteousness. casting it on Him, and believing
Him, and loving one another by pointing one another to Him. I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. Why? It's the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believe it. To the Jew first and also to
the Greek, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed.
Christ Jesus the Lord, from faith to faith, that just shall live
by faith. That Red Sea was an illustration of what Christ has
accomplished for us. By going to the cross and laying
down His life, He destroyed all our enemies, just like God destroyed
all their enemies that day. And when He visits us in His
favor, and He makes us see His salvation again, and again, and
again, what happens every time He does it? Verse 12, Then believed
they His words, and they sang His praise. What did He just
do? He taught them judgment, and
taught them to do righteousness. This is why the psalmist asks,
Remember me, O Lord. Visit me with Thy favor, that
I might seek Christ, that I might rejoice with Your people. Remember
me. Keep me remembering the multitude of Your tender mercies. Do so
for Your people in Israel. Make us glad. That's what He's
asking. But then what happened? What
happens to us? What happens to us? They soon,
verse 13, forgot His works. They waited not for His counsel.
They lusted exceedingly in the wilderness. They tempted God
in the desert. He gave them their request, but sent leanness to
their soul. Do we see ourselves here? God
gave them all they needed. He's given us all we need. He's
given us all spiritual blessings in Christ. And He's promised
us He won't withhold anything we need in Christ and by Christ
and for Christ's sake. But they lusted for more than
God had given. They didn't like what God had
given. He carried them to a place where they had to do without
a little bit, and they had to suffer a little bit, and they
didn't like that. So they're going to fix that. They lusted
for what they didn't have, don't we? They tempted God, they tried
God. Now God tells us in one place,
He tells us to prove Him, to try Him, by doing what? By sacrificially
giving all that he's blessed you with and he says he'll open
the windows of heaven and he'll pour down a blessing so you'll
be abundantly blessed so that you can do whatever he's put
in your hand to do. God said prove me, prove me, try it. But that's not what they were
doing. What were they doing? They questioned God. They were
saying can God furnish a table for us in the wilderness? And
so lusting for what God hadn't given them. They wanted that
for their belly. And so God gave them their request.
But he sent leanness into their soul. What's the modern day example
of that? What's the modern day example
of that? We're not pleased with what God's
given us. We lust for more, and next thing
you know, and God gives you what you want, and you've got every
toy under the sun, and every shiny thing, and every new gadget,
everything else, and you just head over heels in debt. And
you gotta work more, and do more to pay for it all, and it's causing
leanness in your soul. Because you're not worshiping
God, and you're worried about all the other things. I remember
whenever I first started preaching and I thought, God, if he uses
me, I can't have any debt. I got to be ready to go and preach
the gospel. And I had a little debt. And
so I got out of debt and never got back in debt. My house was
the only debt I've ever had since then. Never had another debt
since then. So I could do whatever needs
to be done, keep the gospel with you. And I wouldn't have had,
I'd have sold my house. I wanted to make that, that would
have made it easier on everybody. Because these things, you can
keep up these things and go after these things. And you know, men
will say, well, I'm so blessed to the Lord. Look at all I got.
I'm going to give him my abundance. But now what they're giving him
is just what they got left over after paying all them bills for
all that stuff. And they're giving out of there what's left over.
Give to Him first. Trust Him first. And here's the scriptural lesson. Better is little with the fear
of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith. He gave
what they wanted. Then what happened? Verse 16,
they envied Moses, also in the camp, and Aaron, the saint of
the Lord. Now Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, they had their reasons,
but here was the real issue. They envied Moses. That was the
real issue. They envied Moses. Aaron was
their target. Now listen, Aaron was their target,
but merely because of his association with Moses. You reckon Timothy
ever became the target of men because they envied the Apostle
Paul? You reckon that ever happened?
You reckon they ever called Timothy Paul's boy? That's his boy. He just does what he tells him
to do. What's that? Envy. Just envy. Will we be the
target of men when we preach Christ and Him crucified due
to our association with Christ? Yes. But listen, God will save
His people. God worked judgment. He did what
was right. What did He do? Verse 17, the
earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company
of Abiram, and a fire was kindled in their company, and the flame
burned up the wicked. Who worked that? Who worked that
judgment? Who did that righteousness? God did it. Just trust God. Just trust God. Believe Him.
We can't go through this, but they made a golden calf and they
forgot God their Savior and the great things He did. Aaron did
that. Aaron made that. Moses interceded
for him. That's the only reason God didn't
destroy him. Christ interceding for us. And because of God's
covenant, He remembered His covenant. Christ stands in the breach.
That's what we see pictured in verse 23. He stands in the breach
and He intercedes for us. And because of His covenant,
because of His blood, because He wrought righteousness and
established God's justice. When you sin, when you're bound
down to your golden calf, and we got a bunch of them. We're
foolish if we don't think we don't have some idols. We got
a bunch of idols. And when you bow down and you
go on a calf, the only reason God don't swallow you up and
burn you up is because Christ intercedes for you and stands
in the breach. And for His covenant, for His
righteousness sake, the just thing to do is to save you and
be merciful to you. And that's what God does. That's
what He does. Verse 24 through 25, they despised
the land God gave them and they went home to their tent, they
murmured. They murmured, they talked to each other, had to
pillow talk, just murmured, murmured, murmured about God's providence,
what he'd given them. Verse 32 and 33, they angered
Moses at the waters of strife, and so it went ill with Moses
for their sakes. He spoke unadvisedly with his
lips. Verse 34 through 42, they didn't destroy the nations, they
mingled with them, and they served their idols, and they sacrificed
their children to the false gods, and the wrath of God was kindled,
and he returned them over to the heathen nation. Well, now
surely we don't sacrifice our children. Do we not? We pay great money
to send them off to a city of teenagers, because they got to
have that education. They got to do that, is what
we've been told. And they got to make a certain
amount of money, and they got to have a certain amount of housing,
and they got to have these cars, and they got to have this and
that and the other. And not to mention sacrificing our children
in false religion. You know Paul's word. These things
are written, for example, to the intent we should not lust
after evil things as they lusted You can read it 1 Corinthians
10 verses 6 through 14. I'm trying to hurry here, but
here's what I want you to see. Here's the psalmist's focus of
this psalm, right here. God chastened the whole nation.
He chastened the whole nation. Nevertheless, verse 43, many
times did He deliver them, but they provoked Him with their
counsel. They were brought low for their iniquity. I wish that
whenever we suffer anything in this world, Instead of blaming
every other second cause, we'd stop and think, is God correcting
me? Has he brought me low because
of my iniquity? It's always the other person's
fault. They did that, they did this. Is God bringing me low
for my iniquity? Gotta get that point across to
his people. Nevertheless, he regarded their affliction when
He heard their cry, and He remembered for them His covenant. They kept
forgetting God, but He remembered for them His covenant. Why? That's
judgment, and that's righteousness. And He keeps judgment and does
righteousness. He remembered for them. They
didn't remember Him, but He remembered them. Is it you remembering God? Is that how you're saved? Or
is it God remembering His covenant for you? Which is it? And He repented according to
the multitude of His mercies. Sit down and try to count up
how many mercies God's shown you. Just sit down and try to
think how many mercies He's shown you. And He made them also, even
when He sent them into those nations, and He made them be
captive to chase them, He made their captors pity them and treat
them well. Is He not a God of judgment?
Does He not work what's right? Why did He do all that for us?
Because He promised Abraham. Because He was bringing Christ
through Israel and He wasn't going to let Israel be destroyed.
And because mainly for His elect in the midst of them. He was
doing this. He was doing it. They were the only ones getting
spiritual benefit out of it. Blessed is our God, He keeps
judgment for His people, He works righteousness for us because
He's made us righteous in Christ, and this is how He teaches us
judgment and to do righteousness. So the psalmist beholds the nation's
sin, he beholds his sin, and he asks God for grace and mercy
because it's just and right for God to be merciful for Christ's
sake. Why do we pray in the name of
Christ? Because that's the only way it's just for God to be merciful
to us. for Christ's sake. Save us, verse 47. Save us, O
Lord our God. Gather us from among the heathen
to give thanks unto thy holy name and to triumph in thy praise. Now let me end with this. This
is certain for God's chosen. This is certain. Our triune God
shall keep judgment and do righteousness at all times for his people.
He will. He satisfied justice in Christ,
He put away the sin of His people, so it's just and it's right for
God to have grace, to show grace and mercy to His people. It's
the only just and right thing to do, and that's what He's going
to do. In doing so, He's going to keep His people observing
His judgments and doing what's right. trusting Christ and loving
one another and Doing whatever Christ tells us to do whatever
God tells us to you're gonna do it because you love him you
love him and when we sin God will chasten us God will chasten
us quit thinking about somebody else Think about yourself When
you sin God's gonna chasten you He's gonna chasten you It's just
gonna happen And He's going to chase you, but He's still going
to have mercy on you. In fact, His chasing you is mercy. He's doing what's just and right
for you. And the more He makes us see His grace, never changing,
indestructible. The more we see the multitude
of His mercies to us personally, despite our personal sin and
our self-righteousness and the world that we are, and yet He's
gracious and merciful to it. When you see that and you experience
that, you see it's for Christ's sake.
That's when you see His great power and the multitude of His
mercies. That's when you see where sin
abounded, grace did much more abound. That His sin hath reigned
unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto
eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That's when you see
Him. That's when you see Him. And the more we experience God's
nevertheless, nevertheless, He showed mercy. The more we see
His mercy and experience His mercy and know that it's never
ending and it's for Christ's sake, God works two things. One, He endears us to Himself.
He endears Himself to us. He endears Christ in our own
hearts more and more. It's growing in faith. to see
you don't have any righteousness. You've never done one thing that's
right. Everything you've ever done is a filthy rag before God. Your righteousness is Christ.
It's Christ. The problem is there's a lot
of people that think they have done righteousness. Your righteousness
is Christ. And He's gonna teach you more
and more to keep judgment and do righteousness. What is that?
It's to believe on Christ all the time. And when any temptation
comes, flee to Him immediately. Cast your care on Him. And do
whatever He commands. You didn't do that. I ain't talking
about me, I'm talking about you. You worry about you. That's what
we're gonna have to do. God's dealt with each of His
people. He'll deal with me. He has. And He'll deal with you. Has
He dealt with you? Has He dealt with you? That's where He's gonna grow
you in, in faith. To see He is, and it's for His sake, He's having
mercy on you. And two, He's gonna increase
love in our hearts for Christ and for our brethren. because
of His mercy to us. That may mean you have to keep
your mouth shut and just wait on Him. Wait on Him. Did you hear Brother
Kevin's point? It's a point I tried to make
in that message on that sermon of silence. Christ couldn't speak.
If He spoke, He's going to condemn. those He came to save, and He's
going to justify Himself, and He wouldn't be our Savior. He
had to be silent and bear it, and bear it to save us. And He'll bring you to that place
where you just have to be silent and trust Him. That's the best
place you can be. The best place you can be. He
can work judgment and righteousness for His people. He's going to
do that for you, brethren. He is doing that for you, brethren. I know men will see this world
and they see people go out and leave the gospel and go out in
the world and the world swallows them up and they see all the
sinful things going on in the world. God's going to judge them
for that. No, that is God's judgment. Just let Him alone. That's His
judgment. But He's going to keep you if
you're His. And it don't matter how you're
opposed, and it don't matter what happens, you're going to
keep trusting Him. And when all the dust settles,
God's children will still be trusting Him and still be abiding
with one another. It's just gonna be so. So here's
where we're gonna always be brought, right here. Every time he works
this, he keeps working this, and keeps working this, and keeps
working this. It began, praise ye the Lord, give thanks to the
Lord, for he's good, for his mercy endures forever. And he
prayed, he cried out, Lord, save us, save us. After all this,
you see, after saying all this about what God had done with
Israel, he comes down and he says in verse 47, Save us, oh
Lord God. Do for us what you did for them.
That's what he's asking. Gather us from among the heathen.
Make us give thanks to your holy name and triumph in your praise.
And then, it's like the Lord has done it in his heart. And
he says in verse 48, blessed be the Lord God of Israel from
everlasting to everlasting. What did He say at the beginning?
Blessed are they that keep judgment and do righteousness. It's our
triune God that's keeping judgment and doing righteousness. I'm
not saying you won't. He's going to keep His people
doing it too. But He's going to teach us that judgment and
righteousness is trusting Christ and loving one another. And let all the people say, Amen. You say Amen to that? Praise
ye the Lord. Only one to be praised. Amen.